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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRobert Garza<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The first day of forums introduced Robert Garza to the three campus audiences. Since 2018, Garza has been serving as Palo Alto College\u2019s seventh president. Having around 30 years of experience in higher education, he first began working for the Alamo College District, which PAC is a part of, in 1999 before moving to Dallas College as the president of their Mountain View campus in 2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his hour of speaking, guided by approved questions from the search committee before taking questions from the audience, Garza made an initial point to learn who it was he was speaking to. Asking for a show of hands, he found in attendance at the Highland Q&A was a large amount of staff, a bit less faculty and only one enrolled student (me, but several more hands went up once alumni were included).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The largely framed but seemingly kind-hearted candidate had a familiar Texas accent and adopted a salesman-like approach to his answers \u2013 including light relatable humor, personal history and even a few rhetorical questions too, like: \u201cWho thinks it\u2019s easy to go to college nowadays?\u201d or, \u201cIs anybody a parent?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to his previous employment, Garza\u2019s academic history is Texas-centered as well. With a master\u2019s in public administration from UTSA and both a doctorate in educational administration and the V. Ray Cardozier Alumni Excellence Award from UT; it was the bachelor\u2019s degree from A&M in College Station that got a small \u201cwoo!\u201d from someone in the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By describing some of his previous leadership initiatives, he stressed his strengths of collaboration and effective communication with both students and employees as the proper tools for leading the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA chancellor is only one person, I can not say this enough,\u201d worded Garza, \u201cit will take everybody in this room and everybody who is not in this room to work together to help our students be successful in every possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garza places priority in reaching out for feedback to target issues directly, and says to do that he currently hosts routine meetings with associations like his school\u2019s staff and faculty senate. He also described his frequent \u201cWhataburger with the president\u201d days where he shares a meal at the famous Texas fast food chain with students or an organization while sporting his Whataburger guayabera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garza also has experience in collaboration outside of the school as well; as an example he referred to Alamo College\u2019s involvement with 23 school districts for dual-enrollment programs and AlamoPromise which gives free tuition to students from participating local high schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also during his tenure, negotiations with a nearby Toyota manufacturing site led to securing a work-study program between the under-staffed plant and Alamo Colleges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey donate equipment, they donate money and they hire our students.\u201d Says Garza, acknowledging the importance of outside partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though his authority is limited to Palo Alto College\u2019s one campus, Garza assures that the increase in size at ACC won\u2019t be a totally new experience. The Alamo Colleges are the state\u2019s only current multi-college system, he says, meaning the need to travel and balance multiple locations makes it a similar experience to the multi-campus system here at ACC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps due to his awareness of the audience\u2019s demographic, Garza\u2019s desire to increase employee morale was largely emphasized throughout the session. He advocated for hybrid (online and in-person) work days, and mentioned the one hour a week that his current employees get for on the clock \u201cself-care\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know as well as I do that folks are doing it anyway,\u201d he says, \u201cI don\u2019t want them feeling bad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wanting to expand appreciation for the staff as well, the candidate mentioned his current school\u2019s history of honoring good work by planting trees and devoting plaques to outstanding individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe has worked here for 50 years!\u201d He said, referring to a woman he spoke with earlier who was now in the audience, \u201cWhat are we going to do to remember her?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The room filled with laughter after she quickly responded with her own idea of, \u201cMore than a plaque!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garza has heavy pride in his Hispanic heritage and is even Board Chair for the Mexican-American Civil Rights Institute, a national organization which he says has a museum opening in San Antonio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with this cultural pride, Garza emphasizes that, \u201cPeople are who we need to be supporting, it doesn\u2019t matter what language you speak or what you look like, we\u2019re all human beings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before adding, \u201cI mean, I haven\u2019t met a robot yet.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Joyce Ester <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Garza\u2019s three forums seemed like a tough act to follow; the person to do it was top candidate and fifth president of Normandale Community College (NCC), Joyce Ester. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In front of a very similar audience to yesterday\u2019s, but at a much quicker pace than Garza\u2019s slightly long-winded points, Joyce Ester introduced herself as having over 30 years experience in higher education \u2013 but only after first sharing her story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cServing as president \u2013 or in this case, chancellor \u2013 is what I do, not who I am,\u201d she says, \u201cand who I am is a child of a single mom.\u201d Understanding the many obstacles that can come in the way of academic success, she says this part of her identity is important for students to know and connect with more easily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several differences between Ester and her fellow candidates, the obvious two being that she is both African-American and a woman; but a less clear distinction, yet a more important one for some, is that she is the only choice from outside of Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her academic history, a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California in Santa Barbara and a B.A. in Sociology from Northern Illinois University, led to several faculty and staff positions in California before holding the position of president at both Kennedy-King College in Chicago and later at NCC in Bloomington, Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience seemed to like her despite the lack of Texas experience \u2013 especially after her comparison of a Minnesota native saying, \u201cthat\u2019s interesting,\u201d to the Texas equivalent she learned about recently, \u201cbless your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not Texan, but she does have experience with large school systems. NCC is the biggest college in Minnesota, and only one of the 30 state colleges and seven universities that comprise the Minnesota State system \u2013 all of which are handled by one board and a chancellor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important to look at what our policies and procedures are.\u201d Says Ester, adding that avidly reviewing and renewing policies is another goal she would take on as chancellor, \u201cFor many student\u2019s the problem is that we made policies that maybe made sense five to ten years ago that we need to take another look at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to Garza; First, knowing the specifics of a problem to advocate for creative solutions is Ester\u2019s strategy for addressing the needs of a community. Due to ACC\u2019s size and diverse needs, she assures that lots of time and the beginning of her tenure would focus on learning and understanding each campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She adds that it is important for her to know every campus’ \u201cJerry,\u201d \u2013 a hypothetical person she explains is involved with the school and knowledgeable about its niche details. \u201c[Jerry] knows where all the bodies are buried, and who put them there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One example of her history with using data to target change, she highlights, is NCC\u2019s establishment of the \u201ccampus cupboard\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was started with only small sustaining snacks, but after acknowledging that around half of the college\u2019s students reported feeling \u201cfood insecure\u201d, the \u201ccupboard\u201d \u2013 which is actually around the size of a classroom \u2013 grew to include basic groceries and even hygiene items at no cost to students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She also mentions an initiative taken at NCC to continue providing resources for students while also keeping the Maintenance and Operations department employed during the pandemic. While they weren\u2019t needed at the schools, the worker\u2019s in the department switched to food delivery for food insecure students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was something that came from them,\u201d Ester admits, \u201cbut I think my responsibility as a leader then was to empower them, to help them think outside the box and be a part of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had a tendency to speak quickly; seeming almost out-of-breath at the beginning of her speech, the audience laughed when she worded a playful apology to the ASL interpreter for her pace \u2013 feeling guilty from her history working as an interpreter herself and teaching the subject as an adjunct professor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With significantly more time to ask their own, the larger audience than the day before likely wasn\u2019t too upset about the speed she got through the initial questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the concerns regarded handling conflict and the importance of employee wellness. The audience seemed satisfied with her answers of, \u201c[handle] conflict before it becomes a major conflict,\u201d and, \u201cWe can\u2019t take care of students, if we don\u2019t take care of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ester was also asked about her experience with a performance-based funding model, she denied having any but says she understands its existence, relating it to a car dealership saying, \u201cif you\u2019re not selling enough cars, then you\u2019re not working here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says that establishing better \u201cmetrics\u201d for a student\u2019s post-performance is important when not using an enrollment-based model, with credits at a community college often leading to multiple avenues beyond just graduating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a long history in the field of education, Ester\u2019s retention of energy and passion for the job was evident and encouraging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She says, \u201cI love the work that I do, it\u2019s all about access and opportunity for all of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russel Lowery-Hart <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m standing before you today because I think that higher education, and the bureaucracy that defines it, is broken.\u201d says Russel Lowery-Hart, early on in his forum at the Highland campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even while wearing a multi-colored bow-tie, Lowery-Hart approached his audience with a more serious tone, in contrast to the lighter approach made by his preceding candidates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Acknowledging HB 8, which passed legislation in Texas and transitions ACC to receive funding based on student outcomes, Lowery-Hart puts repeated emphasis on the need for a focus on ways to \u201cdouble graduation rates\u201d so ACC can have the \u201cfinancial flexibility\u201d necessary to address its employment needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He presents his 25 years of experience and nine-year tenure at Amarillo College, as evidence that he\u2019s the one for the job. During his presidency there, which began in 2014, his college\u2019s work at raising the student success rate resulted in it co-receiving the 2023 Aspen Prize for top community colleges, along with Imperial Valley Community College in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says, \u201c[Amarillo College] won that award because we closed equity gaps intentionally and thoughtfully, increased completion from 19 to 60 percent, doubled our graduation rates and deepened learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After seeing an unimpressive success rate early in his presidency, Lowery-Hart focused on finding out the story behind the numbers through the use of focus groups and what he calls, \u201csecret shoppers\u201d \u2013 first-time students that were hired to enroll in college and report their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He discovered that, \u201cthe top things that were keeping [students] from being successful in the classroom had nothing to do with the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using this observation and other data collection strategies he determined the average student at Amarillo College, located in the Texas city of the same name, is a Hispanic woman with 1-2 children. In an effort to humanize this statistic, he commonly refers to this typical student as \u201cMaria.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Focusing on a way to help this large but struggling demographic, Lowery-Hart says he worked to develop Amarillo College\u2019s \u201ctheory of change,\u201d which states, \u201cif you can remove a life barrier in an accelerated learning environment and a culture of caring, then Maria, our typical student, will complete.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To reflect this theory of change; social workers, poverty training and more emergency aid was implemented to help remove life barriers. He says the school started embracing eight-week classes as well as requiring integrated tutoring to improve both accelerated learning and its availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaria,\u201d is likely similar to ACC\u2019s demographic in the predominantly-hispanic population of Austin, but Lowery-Hart says that developing values and communicating a \u201ctheory of change\u201d that is specific to the needs of ACC is crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to be asking you to be a social service agency, I\u2019ll just ask that you understand your students’ lived experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lowery-Hart had done some research on ACC as well; looking at the school\u2019s employee climate survey, he determined the need for an inward-focusing leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2022 climate survey was conducted to report employee morale and reported negative feelings from faculty and staff regarding the college culture and listed stress as their second largest issue (the pandemic was number one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marilyn, who teaches government at the Highland campus, said that she is \u201cover the moon\u201d to hear about a candidate wanting an internal focus; adding that ACC has a tendency to always be \u201cchasing the next big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like ACC, Amarillo College is a multi-campus system but with only six campuses in a 400 mile radius. Even with his experience in handling different locations, Lowery-Hart maintains honesty in his ability to efficiently communicate and become quickly acquainted with each of ACC\u2019s campuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the answer that people want to hear\u2026 is that I’m just going to go to every office and sit down to have coffee with you,\u201d he says, responding to a question about handling the school\u2019s size, \u201cbut the scale is not going to allow that to happen in the first two years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saying a 3-4 year process is more likely, Lowery-Hart\u2019s strategy for upscaling the school\u2019s impact involves building systems that train middle management to act on their own while using the data they have access to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He says it’s important to, \u201caddress the unique nature of each campus, but also unify the student experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience was receptive to his personal history, providing a heartfelt \u201caww\u201d when he explained that the \u201cLowery\u201d and hyphen in his last name comes from his 27 year marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This reaction was then followed by audible surprise from the audience, after learning his adopted son has been Mufasa in the touring production of the Lion King for the past six years. Chris, his adopted son, is a \u201csix foot three, black, gay man,\u201d that Lowery-Hart says changed his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t the white savior moment, he saved us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his forum at Highland, Lowery-Hart did neglect to mention his academic history: a Ph.D. from Ohio University, an M.A. from Texas Tech University and a B.S. from West Texas State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Next – <\/p>\n\n\n\n The entirety of the search process is divided into 11 steps, beginning with a request for applications and a long list of candidates from the executive search firm, Gold Hill Associates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step eight \u2013 where the candidates participate in several community forums \u2013 is complete, and ACC now approaches step nine, which involves members of ACC\u2019s board of trustees reaching out to the current schools of the three finalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The board will use the feedback from these campus visits and the response papers collected from the forum\u2019s audiences to make their final decision.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In its 50th year, ACC is already nearing the final stages of its first middle-aged major change. Announced in an email to students, staff and faculty on June 16th was an invitation to meet the three top candidates to succeed Dr. Richard Rhodes in the role of ACC\u2019s supreme position, the Chancellor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4103,"featured_media":8158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1135,1133,758,759,12,17,1263,1134],"tags":[38,1737,1738,53,100,1742,117,1744,1743,817,1740,1739,783,1741,784,571,598],"class_list":["post-8154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-community-events","category-events","category-local-events","category-news","category-photos-2","category-politics","category-student-events","tag-acc","tag-acc-chancellor","tag-acc-president","tag-accent-news","tag-austin-community-college","tag-barbara-mink","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-chancellor-candidates","tag-chancellor-search","tag-highland","tag-joyce-ester","tag-robert-garza","tag-round-rock","tag-russell-lowery-hart","tag-south-austin","tag-student-life","tag-the-accent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/157\/2023\/07\/IMG_8737-1024x683.jpg\")
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